(Consider reading the post first before watching the video...context matters.)

In many years working with artists, one common theme emerges when I speak with an artist who feels stuck, stagnant or circling round and round in creative dead ends.

And that is the theme of purpose.

If you feel flat, unmotivated, frustrated, or discouraged in your...

Do you ever feel like you are climbing a long, steep route with no end of the trail in sight? Do you find your former routes for living out your desire and joy now elusive?

I sure do.

I don't know about you, but there have been moments in the past year that have certainly reminded me of earlier seasons when life felt like a long, steep...

By Joey O'Connor

For the past eight months, our modern media has been banging one loud drum with a phrase that has not sat well with me. 

What's the phrase, you ask?

Drumroll please with thundering dramatic underscore...

We are living in times of unprecedented uncertainty.

Who uses the prefix "un" two times in a row? 

It makes for good...

I have been on a creative writing journey for the past 13 years with the most ambitious and challenging writing project I've ever taken on. It began with two years of research and writing a screenplay with my brother-in-law, Ken Straw. Then, for the past three years, I've been writing the historical fiction novel version of the story....

Persistence. Perseverance. Tenacity. Endurance. Resilience.

These are the character traits of a creative person who simply does not give up.

You may stumble. You may fall. You may win no artistic awards or personal accolades.

But you do not give up.

You are comfortable with being uncomfortable until your creative work finally bears fruit. You...

By Joey O'Connor

The greatest threat to your life as an artist is not difficult circumstances, but a lack of persistence and perseverance to endure challenging times.

Difficulty. Hard times. Challenges.

These are what make you and I better. Faster. Stronger.

Squeezing a green lime into your Corona on the beach may provide you...

As I sat down to write this morning, I was flummoxed.

(Flummoxed: adjective, bewildered or perplexed, as in "he became flummoxed and speechless)

It's highly unusual for an Irishman to become flummoxed. 

Having received the gift of the gab from Ireland's Blarney Stone, an Irishman always has something to say, as in "I'm Irish,...

During the early days of The Grove, I wrote a book called The Longing: Embracing the Deepest Truth of Who You Are. The book emerged from "deep" inside of me during a 10 year battle with chronic pain and the resulting anxiety.

The Longing is about spiritual identity and embracing at our core what it truly means to live as a son or...

Thomas Merton was a Trappist Monk. He was one of the greatest poets, writers, mystics and intellectual minds of the 20th Century.  

Merton offers you perfect words for these perilous times...how you and I might live as children of light . . . as the sons and daughters of God. 

If we have the Spirit of God in our hearts, we...

By Joey O'Connor

The twin evil stepsisters of making progress with your art are Procrastination and Perfectionism.

What is the purpose of these two nefarious Sirens?

Nothing.

Listening to the Siren Songs of Procrastination and Perfectionism reveals the lack of a clearly defined purpose and the specific results you want in your creative...